Operation Lure

[Saucerian]

I've done a search on "Operation Lure," in the forums, and have not found anything that looks like it would be discussing what I am interested in, although I cannot read every single post and / or thread in this very vast message board.

I am specifically referring to a project proposed by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, a much respected UFOlogist who was considered very level-headed in rejecting the more far-out aspects of UFOlogy such as Contactee stories.

I do agree with what was and may still be the majority opinion that Major Keyhoe in his writings could well be considered a Founding Father of Modern Day UFOlogy, along with Kenneth Arnold, Ray Palmer, and even Charles Fort Himself, and that his organization NICAP was one of the more sensible UFO groups, which didn't go off the deep end.

However, in reading Major Keyhoe's final book, Aliens From Space, my eyebrows were raised by the Major's proposal for the project Operation Lure to try to lure the UFO pilots, who might have feared hostility from Earth people, to safe places on Earth, where the Saucer People could learn about us Earthlings.

It has been many years since I read Aliens from Space, and I don't have a copy of the book, so I can't accurately quote the chapter concerned with Operation Lure, but when reading the book, I got a feeling that Operation Lure might have been going a bit off of the Deep End.

I have read some up to date reviews of Aliens From Space, but Operation Lure was not given a whole lot of attention, and I did not get the feeling that the reviewers felt that this proposed project was a bit too far out for a mostly cautious UFO writer.

I would welcome any opinions any other board members might have about Operation Lure.

 

[EnolaGaia]

It's been well over 40 years since I read Keyhoe's book, so I don't recall a lot about the Operation Lure idea, except for one thing ...

The idea may not have been original to Keyhoe. If you believe certain people, the Canadians already tried such a strategy in the 1950's.

According to this review of Keyhoe's book:

http://www.ufoupdateslist.com/1997/may/m27-010.shtml

... it's on page 42 that Keyhoe mentions the story about the Canadian government allegedly configuring their remote R&D base at Suffield, Alberta, (arguably the Canadian analogue to Dugway Proving Grounds) as a safe haven where UFO's could land and meet with humans. Some versions of the story claim that lights and / or other tactics were used to attract aliens' attention.

A decade later, former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer supposedly revealed this earlier* project in a 1967 speech.

* The alleged Suffield project pre-dated Hellyer's tenure as defense minister.

As is often the case the basic story, Hellyer's revelation of it, and Hellyer himself have all been spun and chewed to bits by various writers. One representative example is covered in this online article:

https://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2005/11/paul_hellyer_an.html

 

[dr wu]

For my 2 cents..I have never heard of Operation Lure.....and never read that book by Keyhoe...but I have heard of Hellyer and his brief foray into ufology when he made his statements some years ago about being aware of Canadian govt aspects of ufos and aliens.

 

[Fahrenheit 451]

Paul Hellyer last year, during his brief foray into UFO's, claiming there are 4 types of aliens present on Earth:

 

[Mythopoeika]

Paul Hellyer is a very significant personality in the UFO scene. He seems intelligent and lucid. Why would he make stuff up?

 

[Shady]

They will never listen to us, it is all about money and power

 

[dr wu]

Paul Hellyer is a very significant personality in the UFO scene. He seems intelligent and lucid. Why would he make stuff up?

Well....that's a decent question but over the years many people in the ufo arena have concocted stuff....like 'Richard Doty' and his gang.
And what about Corso and his book The Day After Roswell...is that truth? If all the stories are true then they often seem to contradict each other.
It becomes hard to know who to believe. An excellent book looking into some of these claims is Revelations by Dr Vallee.

 

[Fahrenheit 451]

http://thesaucersthattimeforgot.blogspot.com/2018/05/

There is quite a lot of information here on Operation Lure. Which I have to say makes it look idiotic, but believable (for the times).

 

[dr wu]

^That link looks interesting...when I have time later at work I'll ck it out....thanks.
I enjoy reading all the bizarre junk around the enigma.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Paul Hellyer is a very significant personality in the UFO scene. He seems intelligent and lucid. Why would he make stuff up?

Hellyer wasn't involved in the alleged Canadian project when it supposedly occurred, admittedly knew nothing of it until he held the minister's post years later, wouldn't reveal his sources, and only mentioned it (and became known in ufology circles) a decade or more after it was claimed to have ended.

His significance and discursive demeanor are attributes ascribed him after he first made the claims.

I don't see how characteristics attributed after becoming famous for hearsay can be retroactively applied to reinforce the credibility of the hearsay that made him famous in the first place.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Hellyer wasn't involved in the alleged Canadian project when it supposedly occurred, admittedly knew nothing of it until he held the minister's post years later, wouldn't reveal his sources, and only mentioned it (and became known in ufology circles) a decade or more after it was claimed to have ended.

His significance and discursive demeanor are attributes ascribed him after he first made the claims.

I don't see how characteristics attributed after becoming famous for hearsay can be retroactively applied to reinforce the credibility of the hearsay that made him famous in the first place.

Hmmm. Didn't know that.
It seems really odd that an ex-minister would confabulate like that. Maybe he is going senile?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Hmmm. Didn't know that.
It seems really odd that an ex-minister would confabulate like that. Maybe he is going senile?

I don't know ... Seeing as how he didn't learn of the project until after the fact, perhaps any confabulation occurred prior to his first hearing the story.

To my mind the closest thing to corroborating evidence of the Suffield lure project was Keyhoe's 1973 claim that American intelligence knew of the Canadian plan in 1954 (see my second linked item above). The problem with this is that Keyhoe himself is an author some accuse of confabulation.

It doesn't help Hellyer's case that the Canadian government has consistently denied having any knowledge or documentation of the project he described, even though they've been open about other work (e.g., chemical / biological warfare research and testing) conducted at the same base.

 

[Saucerian]

Thanks for all the likes of and replies to, my starting this thread. It is a very vast subject that requires a lot of study, some of which our members here have done, and I very much appreciate the efforts of everyone who has responded to this thread,